Introduction
If you’re hunting for a no-cost, no-hassle way to host a personal forum, Clawcloud Run is worth a serious look. Every account comes with a perpetual US $5 monthly credit that can be spent on containers—no credit card required. In this guide you’ll walk through the App Store one-click install for the lightweight forum platform Flarum, plus a few tips for tuning and troubleshooting along the way.
1. Why Clawcloud Run + Flarum?
Clawcloud Run highlights
- Free forever – US $5 in resources every month, permanently.
- Generous specs – up to 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM and 10 Gbps egress, more than enough for a small-to-mid-size community.
- Dead-simple UX – built-in Docker image catalog and App Store; WordPress, Node.js, and other stacks are a single click away.
What makes Flarum attractive
- Lean and modern – a PHP-based forum engine with a clean UI and great performance.
- Rich ecosystem – dozens of extensions (language packs, file uploads, etc.) so you can customise without forking code.
2. One-Click Flarum Setup
Step 1: Create a Clawcloud Run account
Go to https://console.run.claw.cloud and sign in with GitHub. Your US $5/month credit is applied instantly.
Step 2: Deploy from the App Store
APP Store: https://template.run.claw.cloud/?openapp=system-fastdeploy%3FtemplateName%3Dflarum
- Open App Store in the left-hand menu and search for “Flarum”. • If the official template isn’t listed yet, choose any community image that matches
flarum/*. - Click Deploy App (top-right). Container startup usually finishes within three minutes. Once the status flips to “Running”, you’re live.
Step 3: Add a domain + HTTPS
In the container details page open Network → Manage network and attach your custom domain. Clawcloud issues a free TLS cert automatically; allow a few minutes for DNS and Let’s Encrypt propagation.
3. Going Further with Flarum
3.1 Install a language pack
Example: Simplified Chinese
composer require flarum-lang/chinese-simplified
php flarum cache:clear
Swap the package name for any other locale you need.
3.2 Recommended extensions
- File uploads:
composer require fof/upload - Featured discussions:
composer require fof/frontpage - Markdown tables:
composer require kvothe/pipetables
After installing, enable each extension in the Flarum admin panel and clear the cache.
4. Wrap-up
Clawcloud Run pairs a generous forever-free tier with painless container hosting, while Flarum delivers a slick, extensible forum out of the box. Expect occasional hiccups—SSL issuance lag or an outdated image tag—but nothing a quick config tweak or a visit to the community docs can’t solve.
Ready to roll? Spin up a container and launch your own lightweight forum today.